Which to use
“perish” is a verb and “pers” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,162
- “perish” frequency rank
- #36,278
- “pers” frequency rank
- 55440
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | perish | pers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To decay and disappear; to waste away to nothing. | That which belongs to per, theirs (singular): possessive case of per, used in place of a noun. |
Letter map: perish vs pers
Shared letters muted; letters that set perish and pers apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. perish runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against pers's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: perish vs pers
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: perish is averb and persapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55440, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
perish is recorded at frequency rank #19,162, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈpɛɹ.ɪʃ/. pers is at rank #36,278, tagged as apron.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 55440, this pair ranks #133,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of perish vs pers
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "perish": hi. Private to "pers": -.
"perish" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "pers" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "perish" for "pers" ever safe?
Which is more common, "perish" or "pers"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "perish" and "pers". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "perish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "perish" and "pers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs pers". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #133,621 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.